


at least it used to be

by Rehearsal_Dweller



Series: Love at First Sight's for Suckers [5]
Category: Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: F/F, genderswap AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-17
Updated: 2020-07-17
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:28:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,463
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25343956
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rehearsal_Dweller/pseuds/Rehearsal_Dweller
Summary: Jack and Davey have been married a few weeks, and are settling into their new routine.
Relationships: David Jacobs/Jack Kelly
Series: Love at First Sight's for Suckers [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1714258
Comments: 18
Kudos: 39





	at least it used to be

**Author's Note:**

> What?? Finley posting two happy fics in one day??

The wedding of Dinah Jacobs and Jack Kelly is anything but a quiet affair. Jack’s only family, really, are the newsies. And with the newsies comes chaos. It’s a fact of life – water is wet, summer is hot, fifty some boys between the ages of six and eighteen is a recipe for a high energy event. They’re respectful and quiet at the actual ceremony, but after?

After is a whole ‘nother ballgame.

Jack wouldn’t have it any other way, though, and she knows Davey wouldn’t either. They’re celebrating with the boys well into the night, getting whirled around the makeshift dance floor and passed friend to friend for congratulations and hugs and kisses on the cheek.

Race and Crutchie insist on walking Jack and Davey home, because one or both of them always does.

“How’s it feel?” Crutchie asks. He’s got Davey on his free arm, while Race walks next to him on the other side with his arm draped across Jack’s shoulders.

“Dunno, yet,” Jack says. “Since nobody’s given me half a second alone with my _wife_ to figure it out.”

Race laughs. “Well, the two’a you’s got plenty’a time alone now, huh? S’your _wedding night_ and all.”

“Please, Race, I’m trying not to think about how everyone I’ve ever met knows I’m having sex tonight,” Davey says. Jack flushes slightly red at Davey stating it so plainly, but it’s worth it for Race’s startled splutter.

“Da – _Mrs. Dinah Kelly_ , have I told you recently that you’re my favorite person?” says Crutchie, grinning. “I haven’t seen Race speechless like that since – well, since the _last_ time you told him off, actually.”

Davey snorts. “I’m always happy to hear it again.”

“You’re my favorite, doll,” Crutchie says.

“Thank you, Crutchie,” says Davey. She kisses him on the cheek. “Don’t tell my ‘husband,’ but you’re my favorite, too.”

Race jabs playfully at Jack’s ribs. “You ain’t been married a whole day, and she’s already sayin’ you ain’t her favorite anymore.”

“You’re the worst and I hate you,” Jack says to Race, though there’s no venom behind it.

“You love me,” says Race.

“Ugh, I wish I didn’t.”

They’ve reached Jack and Davey’s building now, and the boys step away from them at the doorstep.

“For real, I’m happy for you,” Race says. “Be safe, eh, you two?”

“We’ll try,” Davey replies. “Thank you, Racer.”

Crutchie punches Jack’s shoulder. “Have a good night. Congrats.”

\--

They’ve been married a few weeks, settling comfortably into their new routine.

True to her word, Davey wears trousers at home whenever she can. It isn’t quite always, because she really only has one pair – and those had been a gift from Racetrack, when he found out with some horror that she’d left the ones she used to wear as David behind in her parents’ care for when Les grows into them.

(“I couldn’t justify holding onto them,” she’d said. “Not when I don’t have a reason to pretend to be a boy anymore, and Les is growing like a fucking _weed_.”

“Well we can’t have that,” Race replied, holding a hand up to silence her when she tried to protest. “Daves, I _know_ how much happier they make you. I’m sure we’s got some extra lyin’ around.”)

She knows that Jack is quietly saving up to get her another pair or two, as well as to buy herself some more clothes to wear to work.

There’s one thing that Jack hasn’t included in the fund that Davey knows she’s secretly dying to, though, and she gets in touch with Katherine to see if she might be able to surprise her.

The day she finally gets it all set up, she’s practically buzzing with anticipation when Jack gets home from work.

“Evening, darlin’,” Jack greets, kissing her as she comes into the apartment. “What’s got you all worked up?”

“I have a surprise for you, Jackie,” Davey says. “It’s in the bedroom, if you want to go try it on?”

Jack raises an eyebrow, but goes into the bedroom to investigate. Davey doesn’t follow her, instead lingering in the living room.

“You don’t have to wear it if you want, of course,” says Davey. “But you were saying – saying how you dress isn’t what you’d choose if you _had_ a choice, if it were safe to be anything else. And you’ve been so supportive of me being – figuring out who I am and how I feel comfortable –“ She twists the end of her ponytail around her fingers, her free hand buried deep in the pocket of her trousers. “It was one of Katherine’s, she’s a little closer to your size than I –“

She stops speaking abruptly when Jack reenters the room.

Jack is wearing the same faded blue shirt she’d worn to work today, only now it’s tucked into a burnt orange skirt that fits her remarkably well. Her face is a mix of nerves and happiness that makes Davey’s heart ache.

“What do you think?” Jack asks quietly.

“Oh, _Jack_ ,” says Davey. “Jackie, love, you look stunning.”

“You don’t have to say that,” Jack replies. She tugs at a lock of hair just behind her ear self-consciously. “I’m under no illusions that I’m actually pretty, even dressed in girl clothes.”

Davey crosses the room to stand in front of her wife in three steps, then sweeps Jack into the tightest hug she can manage, lifting her off of her feet with the force of it.

When she’s set Jack down again, she presses their foreheads together. “Jack Kelly, you are so damned silly.”

“Am I?”

“You are.”

“Why?”

“Even if you _weren’t_ pretty – which you are, you know, you’re goddamn gorgeous – but even if you weren’t, that’s not what this is about,” Davey says firmly. “This is – this is you getting to choose who you are and how you dress in our own home, okay? I want you to have the same chance to be _you_ here as you’ve given me, and I know this is something you’ve wanted.”

Jack kisses her. “Thank you, Davey.”

“Do you like it?”

“I love it,” says Jack. She pulls away, twisting her hips from side to side so the skirt will swish around her legs. “You said it’s Kath’s?”

“Yours, now,” Davey replies. “When I told her why I wanted it, she insisted that you keep it. But yes; I’m quite sure mine wouldn’t have fit.”

Jack laughs. “No, I’d’a been as clumsy as you, trippin’ over my feet all the time.”

“Don’t speak too soon, sweetheart, you haven’t worn one’a those in a long time,” Davey teases.

“Yeah, but I ain’t a newborn giraffe like you.”

“Oh yeah –“

\--

Jack _loves_ being able to slip into a skirt when she gets home. She doesn’t do it every day any more than Davey does trousers, but the freedom to – at least in their apartment – dress however she’d like is like breathing for the first time in her entire life.

The first time Crutchie sees her wearing it he almost cries. He pulls her into a tight hug, arms around her neck, and says, “You look so happy, girlie. You hold tight to that wife’a yours, a’right? I wanna see smiles like this on your face every time I come around.”

(Which makes Jack _actually_ cry, and she has to duck into the kitchen, dabbing at her eyes, to collect herself.)

Race’s response is less sentimental –

“Shit, Jack, you been that pretty the whole time?”

\- and it makes Jack laugh like she hasn’t in ages.

The next time Katherine and Sarah come over Jack thanks Kath about a hundred times, and is forced to twirl around like a little girl pretending to be a ballerina for at least three minutes, but it’s worth it. She feels a little silly, but it’s the kind of playful silliness that leaves her feeling warm and happy for hours afterward.

And even without their friends around, that warm happiness lingers.

The outside world may not be in their favor or on their side, but inside the walls of the Kelly apartment Jack and Davey can just _be_.

She feels that fuzzy warmth in her chest when she’s wrapped around Davey in bed.

She feels it tucked under Davey’s arm while they read on the couch.

She feels it from all the way across the room, while she paints and Davey mends the shirt Jack tore a massive hole in at work.

For the first time possibly in Jack’s entire life, she has somewhere where she feels completely known and completely safe.

Jack smiles over at her wife (who returns the smile with a faintly furrowed brow, as the mending is not going well). She found something precious here, she thinks, and she wouldn’t give it up for the world.


End file.
